The present invention generally relates to a system and method for managing an online social network, and more specifically, to a system and method for managing information exchange between members of an online social network.
Online social networking sites have been rapidly gaining in popularity, and operators of online social networking sites have been adding servers and switches to their infrastructure to keep up with the increasing demand. Keeping up with the increasing demand has, however, proved to be difficult for two reasons. First, online social networking sites are virally marketed, as current members actively solicit nonmembers to sign up and join the network, and as a result, its growth has been very rapid. Second, the load on the social networking site is dependent not only on the total number of members but also on the total number of relationships. Because a member typically has multiple relationships, this means that the load increase associated with each new member is much greater than typical.